Invasion
by Moonchampion
Summary: A mysterious alien has arrived on Earth and is seeking out all mutants. A handful of teen mutants, claiming to be student's of Xavier School, arrive on the X-Men's doorstep looking for help? Plus a new mutant joins the Brotherhood, but who?!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

Invasion

(Prologue)

By

Moonchampion

The sounds of explosions and screams that filled the hallway went unheard by the young mutant as she fled from danger. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her own heart, racing through her chest. Clarice Ferguson turned the corner and saw the flight of stairs, her only means of escape, only a few yards away. As she neared salvation, the young mutant found herself falling to the floor. Clarice's chin smashed into the floor. She wheeled around and discovered that something had grabbed her leg.

The tendril wrapped around her ankle appeared to be a mixture of black and gold metal, but felt as if it were pulsing with life. Clarice could feel the tendril pulling her in the opposite direction, away from the stairs. No matter how hard she resisted; it all seemed to be futile. Suddenly, Clarice felt that her ankle was no longer being pulled. She looked up to find an outstretched hand in front of her. As Clarice reached up and took the hand, she felt herself being pulled to her feet.

The hand belonged to Jonothon Starsmore. Like Clarice, Jono was a student at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Snow Valley, Massachusetts. Neither of them were normal teenagers, but mutants. Their mutations were also quite visible. 

Clarice was young girl, no more than fifteen. She had vibrant red hair and lavender skin. Also, upon her face, near her eyes, appeared special unique markings that seemed to be a part of her mutation. Her ears were pointed and similar to the ears of an elf or fairy. The most amazing mutation of Clarice is her ability to distort spatial energy and teleport using "blinking" holes in space. 

Jono was seventeen years old and from England. The manifestation of Jono's mutant powers had dire results. Jono is not only a telepath, but has the ability to project a strong bio-blast of psionic energy from his mouth. However, when his powers first manifested themselves, the release of the energy caused Jono to lose the lower portion of his face as well as much of his chest. As a result, Jono generally wraps that portion of his body, and communicates telepathically.

"_Are you okay, Blink?_" asked Jono telepathically, as he pulled Clarice to her feet. She nodded as she stood. Then, she felt herself being pushed aside as Jono reached for the cloth covering his face. Jono pulled the cloth down, and a huge blast of psionic energy erupted from his face. The blast completely incinerated a piece of the end of a tendril similar to the one that had grabbed Clarice's ankle.

"What are those things, Jono?" asked Clarice. Jono didn't take time to answer her question. He simply grabbed her arm and began to race down the stairs. When they reached the bottom floor, they noticed that everything had become quiet. Then, a faint rumble interrupted the silence. Clarice and Jono began to look all around the room to find the source of the rumbling. Their eyes gazed back up to the top of the stairs. The calm that was before them was replaced by complete destruction. The wooden banister at the top of the stairs exploded into splinters of wood as a massive black and gold metallic figure burst through the second floor railing. Jono and Clarice brought their hands up to shield themselves.

Suddenly, a piercing howl filled the room. The shriek was so powerful that it shattered the metallic figure, and pushed the debris back onto the second floor. Jono and Clarice rounded to find their headmaster floating to the ground. His name was Sean Cassidy. The Irish-born mutant, also known as Banshee, has the genetic gift of a destructive sonic scream, which also enables him to fly.

"Are ye two all right?" asked Sean. Both of the students nodded as they noticed the look of concern on their headmaster's face. "Where are the rest of ye?"

The wooden door, which led towards the kitchen, shattered to pieces as several young students came bustling through the door, followed by an older woman dressed in white. They appeared to be pursued by the same gold and metallic creature that had pursued Jono and Clarice. A small and very young Asian girl turned around and raised her hands at the oncoming menace. An explosion of fireworks erupted from her gloved fingertips and collided with the creature.

"Take that creep!" yelled the girl. Her fireworks held the creature at bey for a moment. However, Jono fired another bio-blast and the creature fell to the ground in pieces once again. "Hey! I had him!"

"Jubilee, we haven't the time to be playin' hero!" said Sean to the Asian girl. "Emma, I think we need to alert, Xavier," said Sean to the older woman in white.

"You're right, Sean," replied Emma. Emma Frost was the headmistress of the school, and a mutant as well. She is one of the strongest telepaths in the world. However, she keeps the past events of her life to herself, never sharing any details with her students. "Clarice, we need you to open one of your 'blinking' holes to the Xavier Institute in Bayville, New York."

Clarice looked shocked. "I don't know how. I don't know where it is!"

"Come here quickly," ordered Emma. Clarice walked over to Emma, who placed her hands upon Clarice's temples. "I'm going to implant an image of the estate and of Charles Xavier in your mind, so that you will understand how to get there." Emma closed her eyes, and began projecting the images of Bayville Xavier Institute and of Charles Xavier.

Before Emma could finish, the floor just in front of the door exploded. The same and gold and black metallic creature emerged from the crevice. This time, however, the creature had assumed a humanoid form. He immediately extended a tendril from his arm, which wrapped itself around one of the students. The tendril had wrapped around a student with gray skin. The young mutant started to extend his skin across the room, towards his fellow students for help.

"Angelo!" called another of the students. It was a girl with short, blonde hair. She ran towards Angelo and tried to free him from the tendril binding him very tightly. Another tendril exploded from the chest of the metallic creature and shot around the girl's wrist.

"Paige!" called Sean. He ran towards the girl, wrapped his arms around her waist, and began to pull. Paige's hand was pulled free, but the skin on her hand had been ripped off. Paige looked at her hand and saw the shiny steal coating that was covering her hand. "Get movin' girl! You've got warn, Xavier!" said Sean to Paige.

"But, Mr. Cassidy," protested Paige, "what about Angelo? We can't leave him!"

"Ye'll do what ye're told! As team leader, it's your responsibility to see the rest of the kids to safety! Do ye understand? 'Cause if ye don't, I'll give the job to someone else!" replied Sean.

After a moment of hesitation, Paige turned around and beckoned the other students to gather around Clarice. "Clarice open the hole now!" ordered Paige. Clarice shut her eyes and a few inches above her head, a circular yellow disc of energy appeared. "All right, everyone! Through the portal!" The students began to file in through the portal. Jubilee jumped through first, followed by Jono. Then, a tall dark-skinned girl with long black hair leaped through the portal. She was followed by a young boy, also with dark skin and a shaved head. Finally, Paige gestured for her headmistress, Ms. Frost, to go through next.

As she was about to leap through, a black and golden tendril grabbed wrapped around Ms. Frost's waist and jerked her away from the portal. Paige turned to see that the creature now had both of the school headmasters wrapped in its tendrils, as well as her classmate, Angelo.

"Leave girls!" called Ms. Frost. "You're the only chance we have! Remember you must warn Xavier!" Paige bit her lip as if debating whether she should comply with her mentor's orders. "Paige please! Ahhhhh!"

Paige and Clarice looked on in horror, as the creature pulled all three of its prisoners inside itself. When they were no longer visible the girls turned and leaped through the portal. The metallic creature began to race after them, but the portal closed before he could reach it.

"You cannot escape me. I am Harvest!" called the metallic creature. He closed his eyes, and began to search within himself. Then, his eyes exploded open. "Bayville. They've gone to Bayville to get help from Charles Xavier." Harvest turned and prepared to exit the door. He opened his mouth, and an ear-piercing shriek escaped its mouth, shattering the large wooden door. "I will succeed in my mission. As I absorb more mutants, I will become stronger. Then, nothing will stand in the way of the Phalanx Empire. And Earth simply becomes another acquisition of the empire." Then, Harvest began to soar into the sky and fly towards Bayville.


	2. Invasion

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

Invasion

By

Moonchampion

The family room at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters in Bayville, New York was dark and only lit by the television. The six mainstay students of the Institute were all sprawled about the couch and the floor as they watched the horror flick, _Day of the Dead IX_. They watched as the teenage girl on the screen slowly walked up a flight of stairs. What the girl didn't know was that the killer was waiting at the top of the stairs ready to strike with a scythe. Each of the students' eyes were glued to the television. Just as the girl reached the top of the stairs, the killer swung the scythe and….

The entire house was filled with screams as the students of Xavier howled at the top of their lungs. Jean wrapped her arms tightly around Scott. Kitty screamed, covered her head and phased under the sofa. Kurt and Evan, who were on the floor, screamed at the their arms and grabbed each other. Rogue merely sat on her end of the sofa with her rested rested in her hand as she leaned on the arm of the couch.

When the moment of sheer terror ended, Kitty cautiously began to emerge through the seat of the sofa, and back into her original seat. Kurt and Evan realized that they were still clutching onto each other and quickly let go. Jean still rested her head against Scott's arm as the film continued. Rogue only managed to scoff at the reactions of her friends.

"You guys are hopeless!" said Rogue. "It's only a movie for crying out loud."

Kurt was on his feet and moving towards Rogue. "Oh, like you veren't scared," said Kurt. "I can see the fear in your eyes."

Rogue stepped closer to Kurt. "I'm not scared!" she protested. "It takes a lot more than some corny slasher flick to rock my nerves!"

"Oh yeah?!" said Kurt.

"Yeah!" replied Rogue. Suddenly, an alarm began to fill the halls of the mansion. Everyone screamed again. This time Rogue, found that she clutching onto Kurt for dear life. When she realized it, she looked up into Kurt's eyes, and quickly let go. Before Kurt could respond over the loud klaxon, Rogue held up a finger to silence him. "That was real."

Scott was out of seat, and running towards the security panel near the doorway. He turned back to his friends, with a grim expression on his face. "Intruders," he reported. "Six of them, coming in from the east lawn."

"What are we going to do?" said Kitty.

"The Professor, Ororo and Logan should be back soon," said Evan.

"We can't afford to wait for them to get back," said Scott. "Whoever these people are, they're moving pretty fast. And judging from the print-out I'm getting from Cerebro, they're… they're mutants!"

"What could they possibly want?" asked Jean.

"Let's find out," said Scott. He headed towards the back door, which would take them towards the east lawn. The other X-Men were out of their seats and following him without hesitation.

Paige slowly motioned for her friends to follow her as they approached the mansion. It mostly appeared to be dark, so they assumed that no one was at home. Paige glanced back and did a headcount. There six of them all together. Paige motioned for Monet, the tall dark-skinned girl, to come forwards. "Monet, can you sense anything?" Paige asked.

Monet closed her eyes and started to use her telepathic powers to scan the campus, to see if anyone were home. "I don't know," replied Monet. "Something or someone is blocking my scan."

Paige bit her lip. She hated walking into a situation that left her vulnerable to any sort of attack. However, she didn't have much a choice. This Charles Xavier was the only chance she had to save her headmasters and her friend Angelo. "All right, let's go. But everyone be careful. Got it, Jubilee?"

Jubilee frowned at Paige and stuck her tongue out at their blonde leader. The students from Snow Valley started to make the final run across the expanse of the lawn up to the main house. After only a few steps, a red beam hit the ground directly in front of Paige. She halted and looked up to find where the beam had originated. She saw that the beam had come from the eyes of a teenage boy gazing from the patio directly at them. He was not alone though. He was accompanied by five other teenagers who all stood ready for anything as they gazed down at the intruders.

"You've got ten seconds to explain what you're doing here," said Scott.

"I don't have to explain anything to you," said Paige. She took another step forward. "You on the other hand have three seconds to get out of my way, or else."

"Or else what?" said Scott.

"Time's up," said Paige. "Generation X! Let's show these losers we mean business!" They began to move from the cluster on the lawn and scatter in all directions.

"All right, X-Men," called Scott, "Take these guys down hard and fast!"

Monet flew up into the air and started to fly towards the patio. Clarice opened another portal on the lawn, and appeared on the patio behind the X-Men. Everyone else raced off in different directions on foot. As Paige ran directly towards the patio, where Scott was standing, she began to dig her fingernails into the skin across her chest. She began to pull, and the flesh covering her body began to rip off like wrapping paper.

"What the…," began Scott. He felt his body being lifted into the air. He looked down, and saw that Monet had lifted him over her head. She started to throw Scott off the patio and towards the ground. After hitting the lawn, Scott began to roll with the momentum. When he finally came to a halt, he saw that Paige was approaching him fast. However, now her entire body was no longer covered in flesh, but steel. She ran at him with her fists clenched together high above her head. Once she was in front of Scott, she brought her fists down. Scott rolled out of the way. Paige's fists had left a huge crater where Scott had been sitting. Seizing the opportunity, Scott lifted his glasses and fired and optic blast that sent Paige sliding across the lawn.

Meanwhile, on the patio, Monet had turned her attention to her next target. Evan was standing ready to attack, with his bone spikes lacing his forearms. Evan charged towards Monet who simply did not move. Evan swung his forearm towards Monet, who only held up her arm to block the shot. Evan's spikes shattered to pieces as they hit Monet's arm. Evan looked from his spikes to Monet in complete awe. Then, Evan felt Monet's fist connect with his jaw. Before Evan new it, he was soaring in the air and into the pool.

Clarice stepped through her portal and found herself face to face with a furry blue elf. She spun on her left foot, as she tried to deliver a roundhouse with her right. Kurt disappeared in a explosion of brimstone. Clarice searched around for her target. Kurt had teleported to the other side of the pation. Another yellow "blinking" hole appeared behind Clarice. She stepped through it and found herself behind Kurt. Clarice swung her leg again, only this time Kurt fell into a backward somersault. Then, he disappered in another explosion of brimstone. When he reappeared, he found himself crashing into Clarice, and knocking her over. 

Kurt grabbed her arms as he pinned her to the ground. "Who are you?! Vat are you doing here?!" asked Kurt, but Clarice remained silent. Then, Kurt felt himself being lifted into the air by the collar of his shirt. Monet had lifted him off the ground and into the air with one hand. "Hey! Put me down!"

"My pleasure," said Monet. She launched Kurt towards the pool with one hand. However, as Kurt soared through the air, he disappeared in a cloud of brimstone. Monet and Clarice searched their surroundings for the blue elf. However, before they could react, Kurt reappeared behind them. Using the same momentum he had been thrown with, Kurt smashed both of his feet into the back of Monet. Monet, lost her balance and was knocked into Clarice. Both girls were pushed into the side of the mansion. Clarice fell to the ground unconscious. The momentum carrying Monet, along with her mutant power of invulnerability caused her to break the brick wall, however, she too remained motionless.

The bald, black teen of Generation X, Everett Thomas, stopped in his tracks as he saw Rogue. Rogue charged at the boy and leaped into the air. She landed on top of Everett forcing him to the ground. Everett used Rogue's momentum to force her off of him. As Everett got to his feet, he felt the flesh of Rogue's hand contact his face. Everett began to feel himself losing consciousness. He put all his remaining energy into the final use of his powers. An aura of every color began to glow around the boy. Then, he could feel his strenght returning to him. He spun around and forced Rogue's hands off of him.

"How did you do that?!" asked Rogue astonished. No one had ever been able to resist her powers like that before.

"I have the ability to synchronize myself with the powers of any mutant nearby," answered Evan. "In other words, I mimicked your powers, kind of like this!" Evan's eyes began to glow red. An optic blast erupted from his eyes and sent Rogue flying across the lawn and onto the ground, where she stayed.

Suddenly, Evan felt a something crash into the small of his back. As he fell to the ground and into unconsciousness, Scott walked up behind him. "Copycat," whispered Scott to himself. Then, as Scott turned around, he felt Paige crash into his body and send him to the ground. He cradled his ribs as he stood to his feet. The pain actually felt like a hunk of steel had crashed into his ribs. She charged towards Scott again, but felt herself hovering above the ground. Jean had used her telekinesis to suspend Paige in the hair, so that she couldn't move.

"Nighty-nite, Blondie!" said Scott. Then, with all the power he could muster, he fired an optic blast at Paige. She fell to the ground and remained motionless. Scott turned her body over, and noticed that his blast had pierced the metal husk covering her skin. Where the blast had hit, he could see the flesh. Scott, still cradling his ribs turned his attention towards Jean. "Jean! Behind you!"

It was too late. Jono had fired a bio-blast at Jean from behind. Jean fell to the ground without ever knowing she'd been attacked. Scott tried to stand and fire an optic blast at Jono. However, the pain was so great that he couldn't bring himself to do either. Scott merely looked up at Jono. Flames of psionic energy were roaring from the cavity of his chest and lower face. Scott stood there helpless waiting for the inevitable.

Kitty found herself standing opposite Jubilee. A smirk began to spread across the face of the Asian girl. She almost started to laugh as Kitty stood in a martial arts stance, ready to defend herself.

"I guess, I better watchout for the crane, huh?" teased Jubilee. Jubilee raised her hands, and fireworks exploded from her hands. Kitty clutched her eyes, she had been blinded by the blast. Jubilee ran forwards as if to push Kitty into the pool.

"Kitty, phase!" shouted Evan as he climbed out of the pool.

Kitty did as she was told. Jubilee ran through Kitty's body. Jubilee came to a halt right at the edge of the pool. She began to wave her arms backwards and forwards to prevent herself from falling in. Then, she felt something hard smack against her bottom. Jubilee reached back and grasped her bottom to soothe the pain. However, as she did so, she fell head first into the pool. When, she resurfaced she saw Evan standing next to Kitty with a long, thin bone spike resting against his shoulder.

"Oh, I'll show you!" cried Jubilee. She lifted her hands out of the water and prepared to fire another volley of fireworks.

"Holster the lightshow, squirt," said a voice. Jubilee turned her attention to owne of the voice. It was Logan. A smile spread across Jubilee's face as she swan to the edge of the pool and pulled herself out. She raced along the edge of the pool, wrapped her arms around Logan's waist, and squeezed as tight as she could.

"Logan!" cried Jubilee as she buried her head against his chest.

"Did we miss something here?" asked Evan as he looked from Jubilee and Logan, and back to Kitty.

"We will explain everything shortly," said Professor Xavier as Ororo wheeled him out onto the patio. _"Listen to me, everyone. The fighting must end now. There are no enemies here, only friends. I want all of you to come quickly to the main house,"_ said the Professor.

The teens all fumbled into the Professor Xavier's office cradling their injuries and supporting each other as they entered the door. All of the students from Snow Valley filed on one side of the room and glared at the Xavier's students. The X-Men did the same and continued to stare down their rivals. Professor Xavier began to massage his temples as the tension of the room began to get to him.

"Now, would someone care to explain exactly what is going on here?" said the Professor.

Scott took a step towards the Professor, still holding his ribs. "Professor, they appeared on the grounds and activated the intruder alarm. When we asked them to identify themselves they attacked."

"Oh really?!" scoffed Paige as she stepped forward. "Professor Xavier, I presume?" Professor Xavier nodded. Paige looked back at Clarice who confirmed his identity. "Listen sir, I admit we attacked, but only after four-eyes here fired on us!" Paige was now staring directly into Scott's eyes.

"I fired a warning shot!" protested Scott as he stepped closer to Paige. "You however ignored the warning, refused to identify yourself and then gave your team the order to attack us! If the fault belongs to anyone, it's you!"

"Something has to be wrong with your prescription, Four-eyes, or are you just dying to go another round?" taunted Paige.

"Ready when you are, Blondie?" countered Scott.

"Enough! Both of you!" said the Professor. "Obviously both of you erred in your judgement of the situation. Now, I believe that it is time that we got to the matter at hand. First, however, I feel I owe you all an explanation. Scott, you and the others are enrolled here at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters in Bayville, New York. These other students, are enrolled at the our sister school, the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in Snow Valley, Massachusetts."

The mouths of all the students dropped at the revelation. "You mean you created another school, and didn't tell us? When did this happen?" asked Scott.

"The school has been in existence for sometime," explained Xavier. "This is however, the first class to attend the Snow Valley Institution. I selected two of my trusted friends to run the installation." A sarcastic grunt of laughter escaped Logan's lips after Xavier's statement. "I thought training you all would be better if it occurred in smaller groups, instead of one large group."

"How many more schools do you have like this?" asked Scott. "And why have you been keeping them a secret?"

"As of right now, there is only one other school, on Muir Island, in Scotland. However, at the moment that is irrelevant. What we need to determine now, is why you all are here," said Professor Xavier as he turned to Paige.

"Professor, we were sent by Ms. Frost to get help, and to warn you," said Paige. She was nervous, and kept trying to keep her emotion in check. "It all started a few days ago. While during a field exercise in the yard, we discovered this strange metal on the grounds. The composition of it, doesn't fit with any of the metals we have on our periodic table.

"Anyway, just this morning, the thing started showing signs of life. It had the ability to absorb matter and convert the matter to match the same molecular make-up as the metal. Whatever it absorb was turned into the same metal. As it kept absorbing, it began to compose a body for itself. Eventually, the thing came to life and started trying to absorb us. It succeeded in capturing one of our teammates, as well as Mr. Cassidy and Ms. Frost."

The Professor rested his chin on his fist as he began to think about everything he had just heard. "Listen, you've all apparently had a rough day. Scott, I want you and the others to show our guests where they can get cleaned up, make them fill at home. Right now, I need to converse with Logan and Ororo about what steps we should take to end this threat and retrieve our colleagues."

Scott nodded, and motioned for everyone to follow him out of the room. Once they were all out of the office, they headed for the living room. Once again, the students from the two schools filed to opposite sides of the room. Scott looked at the faces of his own friends, and the faces of their guests. He sighed and strided across the room towards Paige. He stopped and front of her, and looked down at her. Then, he held out his hand.

"Scott Summers – Cyclops," said Scott with his hand extended. 

Paige looked down at his hand then, back up into Scott's red lenses. Then, she reached out and took his hand, "Paige Guthrie – Husk."

"Nice to meet you, Paige," said Scott. "I figure that since we'll be working together we should actually get to know each other. Now, I guess you know what my mutation is by now. What's yours?"

"I have the ability to shed my skin at will," began Paige, "and replace it with any other solid material. Then, I can shed that layer and go right back to flesh."

Then, Jean stepped forward and introduced her self, and explained that she was a telepath and telekinetic. The other X-Men followed the examples of Scott and Jean, and did the same thing. After they had all introduced themselves, the members of Generation X did the same.

__

"My name's Jono Starsmore – Chamber," said Jono telepathically. _"As you can see, I'm a telepath, but I also have the ability to fire bio-blasts of psionic energy."_

"Clarice Ferguson – Blink," said Clarice timidly. "I can distort spatial energy and teleport through those distortions." Clarice glanced quickly in Kurt's direction, whom was wearing a large smile on his face.

"Everett Thomas – Synch," said Everett. "I can mimic the powers of mutants in close range, and use them as my own."

"Monet St. Croix," said Monet. "Just call me, M. I can fly, super strength, and I'm a telepath." Monet appeared to be annoyed by the fact that she had to explain herself. She almost had the attitude of disbelief that they didn't know who she was.

"Jubiliation Lee, better known as Jubilee," said Jubilee. Then, a pink bubble began to emerge from her lips, only to deflate and re-enter her lips. "Let's see, my specialty is… fireworks!" Jubilee sent up a few sparks. "Okay… tough crowd."

"All right, let's head upstairs, I'll show you guys where you can get cleaned up," began Scott. "Then, if you're hungry or whatever, we could grab a pizza." Scott turned and began to lead the way upstairs. He felt a hand grab his arm. He turned to find Paige holding his arm.

"I'm sure the rest of my crew is famished, but I'm not really hungry. Could you show me where I could get some training in?" asked Paige. A smile spread across Scott's face. As the others continued up the stairs to get cleaned up, Scott and Paige headed towards the Danger Room.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	3. Silent Savior

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

Silent Savior

(Invasion Part II)

By

Moonchampion

Hundreds of people stormed through the terminal of JFK International as they journeyed to their respective destinations. Amid the crowds of people, Pietro Maximoff pushed his way towards the to the edge of the walkway. When he finally reached the edge, he propped his back against the wall and stared at many of the moving mass of people marching in front of him. Occasionally, Pietro found himself dipping his hands into the pockets and purses of the people passing him. He moved so quickly, that none of them ever felt his lightning fast hands remove their belongings.

After about a dozen acquisitions, Pietro found he was getting bored. He stared at the flight schedule and saw that the plane from Kiev had just landed twenty minutes ago. Pietro looked at the moving masses more carefully, but still couldn't find who he was looking for. Pietro clenched his fists as the frustration began to grow in his bowels.

Then, Pietro felt a small, gentle hand touch his shoulder. "Pietro?" said a soft accented voice from behind. Pietro turned to find a young, exotic girl with long locks of auburn hair and green eyes. The young teenage girl was wearing a black leather skirt and a black leather vest. Underneath the vest, she wore a red blouse, and wrapped around her neck was a red, lace scarf. She also wore a pair of long black, heeled boots, and had a single, red band at the top of her hair.

"Wanda!" cried Pietro as he wrapped his arms around the young girl. "It's been so long. How have you been, Sis?"

Wanda wrapped her arms around her brother as she squeezed him as tightly as she could. "Pietro, it feels like it has been an eternity. I'm so glad to see you again!"

Pietro loosened his grip and stared into his sister's eyes. "You're right, it has been a long time. Too long," he said. He reached down and grabbed her bags. As he lifted her bags, he looked at her arms and chuckled. "I see you're still obsessed with bracelets."

Both of Wanda's forearms were covered with all sorts of bracelets. She smiled shook her arms briefly, so that the bracelets jingled. Pietro let out a small laugh and shook his head. Then, he raised his arm in the direction of the exit, and the Maximoff siblings began to make their way through the crowd to the exit.

"Am I going to have to carry you through this whole simulation, Guthrie?" asked Scott as he fired an optic blast and obliterated a large saw-blade soaring through the air towards them.

"Take a seat, Summers and let me show you how its really done!" cried Paige. She dug her nails into her skin, and ripped the skin off. Underneath her flesh, Scott saw that the skin underneath appeared to be made of stone. Paige rushed past Scott and engaged the next obstacle. A pair of large boulders, suspended by chains were swinging from the ceiling and blocking the path to the goal.

Paige ran right into the path of the boulder. As the boulder swung back towards Paige, she pulled her fist back. Then, Paige put all of her muscle into the punch against the boulder. The huge boulder shattered into thousands of tiny pebbles as they scattered about the floor. Then, Paige did the same against the second boulder. "You call this a work-out?" she said to Scott.

"No, I call those, a work-out!" said Scott. He barely had time to move as a volley of laser beams danced past his head. Scott dove through the air and lined up his target before firing an optic blast and disabling the gun that had targeted him. Paige scoffed as Scott got to his feet. "Look out!"

Paige turned around to find a huge belly collide with her face. At first she felt her body become absorbed inside of the large flesh. Then, she could feel her body being expelled from the flesh into the opposite direction. Paige hit the wall, and slid to the floor. "What on Earth, is that?!" she exclaimed.

"That's the Blob," explained Cyclops. "He's a member of the Brotherhood."

"Brotherhood?" Paige asked.

"Yeah, and there's the rest of the crew: Toad, Avalanche and Quicksilver," said Scott, as they both gazed across the room to find the rest of the Brotherhood gathering next to Blob.

The Toad leaped into the air and unleashed his tongue in Paige's direction. She grabbed his tongue and pulled very hard. Toad's body came towards her with great speed. Paige reached back, and then smashed her stone fist into Toad's face. The high-jumping mutant fell to the ground. Scott smiled and nodded approvingly.

Quicksilver began to race across the ground in Scott's direction. Scott fired a bunch of optic blasts at the moving blur, but was unsuccessful. Then, Scott felt the ground begin to move at his feet. He looked over to see Avalanche using his powers to manipulate the ground. Scott fired an optic blast in his direction, and for a moment the tremors ceased. Then, Scott turned his attention back to Quicksilver, only to find the speedster landing a blow across his cheek. Scott went down and, and began massaging his jaw with his hand. He looked across the room to find Paige was laughing at his mishap.

Suddenly, Paige found herself being tossed into the air, as the ground beneath her feet lifted her up. She landed on her bottom to find that Avalanche was manipulating the ground in front of her. Paige dug her nails into her skin and stone began to flake away. Underneath the stone layer was a dull, black substance.

Paige started to race towards Avalanche, but the Blob moved into her path once she was only a few feet away. Paige stopped just in front of the huge mutant, and simply stared into his eyes. Blob reached back and prepared to smash his fist into Paige's face. When the Blob's punch connected, his fist bounced against the black material lacing her skin. The impact of the bounce forced the Blob's hand to travel behind him and hit Avalanche in the face, sending him soaring against the wall. He slid to the floor and remained motionless.

Scott seeing his opportunity fired a pair of optic blasts to the back of Blob's knees. The oversized mutant sank to his knees, and was then just about level with Paige. She pulled the black, rubbery skin off of her right arm to reveal a shiny metallic fist. She swung the punch with all her might at the Blob's face. It appeared to be just enough to send him crashing to the floor.

"Good going, Paige," said Scott as he nodded.

"Whoa!" shouted Paige as she felt herself being shoved forward. She managed to catch her balance and realized they had forgot about Quicksilver. She looked into Scott's direction to see his optic blasts were chasing a moving blur. "He's too fast! You'll never hit him like that!"

"You're right!" said Scott sounding annoyed. Then, he seemed to come up with an idea. "Can you do diamond?"

"What?!" asked Paige, confused by his question.

"Your flesh, can you turn it into diamond?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, why?" said Paige as she felt herself being pushed again.

"Just do it, and duck!" yelled Scott as he continued firing after Quicksilver. Paige dug her nails into her skin once again to reveal a crystal-like body. Once she had pulled all the other material off of her, she crouched down and tucked her head in. Scott, seeing that she was ready fired and optic blast at her backside. When the optic blast connected with the diamond skin, the single blast ricocheted in several different directions as several smaller beams.

"Ahhh!" called Quicksilver as the moving blur came to a halt. Scott aimed carefully, and fired an optic blast strong enough to level Quicksilver. Scott turned to check on Paige, who was getting to her feet rubbing her back.

"Good idea," she said, "but how did you…."

"I knew the diamond would refract the light into smaller beams," began Scott. "That way, I could fire several beams in different directions, and have a better chance of making a hit."

"Well, maybe you're not completely useless," teased Paige. As she started to turn and leave, she grabbed her back and cried out in pain. Then, she felt herself drop to her knee.

"Are you okay?" asked Scott. He was down on the floor with her, offering her support, so that she could get back to her feet. "Here, I'll help you to the infirmary." AS the two teens started walking, Paige felt her legs give way, and Scott's grip on her tightened. "The blast must have been too much. I'll carry you."

"No, I'm fine," protested Paige. Then, her eyelids started to close and she fainted in his arms. Scott lifted Paige into his arms, and wrapped her arms around his neck so that he could support her weight with more ease.

"Computer, end simulation," said Scott. The image and bodies around them faded. The Danger Room was now completely empty. As Scott walked across the Danger Room, he noticed that Paige's head was now resting against his chest. Scott continued to carry Paige out of the Danger Room and to the infirmary.

Meanwhile, up in the control booth, Jean Grey felt an unusual feeling grow in the pit of her stomach. However, when Scott had lifted Paige into his arms, Jean felt her stomach clench so tightly that it was painful. She slammed her hand against the control panel and left the control booth. Even though she knew that Scott's actions were innocent, and that she understood the situation, she couldn't help but feel… _jealous_.

Jean got up from her chair and walked towards the doorway. She sighed and placed her hand on her forehead. _"This is ridiculous," _Jean told herself. _"I'm over-reacting here. There's no way I should be concerned."_ Then, Jean replayed the images of Scott and Paige during the simulation. _"They're a perfect match. Scott hasn't worked that well with anyone before. It's like they're were in perfect synch with each other's moves."_ Jean tried to push the thoughts away as she left the control booth.

Pietro and Wanda stepped out of silver Corvette convertible. He grabbed his sister's bags and began walking towards the safe-house Mystique had left them. It was a nice place, isolated and pretty luxurious. However, Mystique hadn't been seen in weeks, ever since their last meeting with Magneto. She had just up and disappeared without a trace, and hadn't tried to contact them at all. Magneto had done the same as well.

"Are you sure everyone will be okay with this?" asked Wanda.

Pietro came to a halt and looked at his sister. "Listen, you'll be fine. The guys already agreed to it, and Mystique will be thrilled you're with us. Especially, with her record of failures piling up," Pietro assured her. "Come on."

Pietro and Wanda continued to walk towards the house, when one of the glass windows exploded and Todd Tolansky came flying through it. The moment he hit the ground, he looked over and saw the siblings staring at him. Todd leaped in the air, and landed on Pietro knocking him to the ground.

"Man, we gotta get outta here!" cried Todd frantically. "That thing got all of 'em! It's coming! It's coming after me! What are we going to do!"

"What are you talking about?!" said Pietro. "Get off of me!" Pietro shoved Todd off of him and stood up. "Calm down and tell me what's going on. You said something got the others. What was it?"

"That!" cried Todd. Pietro and Wanda turned around to see a large humanoid type figure emerging from the shattered window. He appeared to be made from a gold and black metallic alloy, and simply stared at the three teens. Then, they creature raised its hand and a golden black tendril emerged from its arm and approached the teens. Pietro took his sister's hand and sped out of the path of the tendril. Todd leapt away from the oncoming tendril as well.

"Todd, get my sister out of here!" said Pietro. "I'll keep you guys covered and catch up!" Pietro looked at his sister and saw the fear in her eyes. "I'll be okay, just get out of here." Then, he bent down and kissed his sister on the cheek before speeding off in the direction of the creature.

"Pietro, wait!" cried Wanda. She tried to run after him, but felt a thin pair of arms wrap around her waist. Then, she felt herself being hoisted into the air. Todd had grabbed her and was doing as he was instructed. Todd halted as they landed on top of a thick brick wall surrounding the grounds. "We have to go back!"

"No we don't!" cried Todd. "That thing is dangerous! Someone could killed, like me!"

Todd and Wanda sat on the wall and watched Pietro continue to race around the creature as several tendrils continued to chase after him. "Come on, pal. There's no way you're catching this mutant. So cough up my friends, before I make you regret it," said Pietro.

Then, the creature opened his mouth, but what came out was completely unexpected. A loud screeching scream emerged from the creature's mouth. The scream was so loud that the sound waves knocked Pietro off his feet. He lay on the ground clutching his ears tightly trying to block out the screams. Then, the golden black tendrils wrapped around his body as he continued to roll around the ground in pain. The tendrils began to pull him closer, until he was engulfed in the creature completely.

The creature remained still for a moment as he allowed his body to accept its recent acquisition. Then, he turned and faced the brick wall on which Wanda and Todd were sitting. Then, he raced across the lawn in a blur just like Pietro had and came to a halt only a few yards from the wall.

"Do you really think you can escape Harvest?" asked the creature. He looked up into Wanda's eyes. "You're brother is safe, Wanda. All you have to do is join with me, and you two will be together once again."

"How do you know my name? And how do you know what I am thinking?" asked Wanda.

"I know all," said Harvest. Then he held out his hand, as if offering it to her. "Join with me, Wanda."

"No!" cried Wanda. Then, she raised her hands above her head and they began to grow. "Winds of fate, change!" Then, a nearby tree began to creak. Harvest turned his attention towards the tree and found it was crashing down in his direction. He raised his hands as if to block the tree, but his attempt was futile. He disappeared under the leaves and branches of the tree.

"Wow, you did it!" cried Todd. He was now on the other side of the brick wall. He leaped back up and saw that Harvest had been crushed and buried under the tree. Then, both of the teens felt something grab them around their waist. They looked down to find Harvest's tendrils were around their waist, and he was standing behind them.

"Fools! When will you learn that you have no choice. You will be absorbed, and the Phalanx Empire will conquer Earth," shouted Harvest as he pulled the mutants closer.

"NO! HELP! Somebody HELP!" cried Todd.

Just as Harvest's body was about to engulf Wanda and Todd, the tendrils that was wrapped around their waist was cut. Both of the teens fell to the ground and quickly crawled away. They looked up to see how they had been freed. They saw standing before them, was what appeared to be a young girl. However, here skin appeared to be red, and made of some sort of crystal. She was crouched on the ground like wild cat ready to strike. Harvest stared at the girl in awe. Then, he fired some tendrils in her direction. She leaped out of the way of the attack and sliced her fingers at the tendrils. The tendrils felt to the ground again, separated from Harvest. Then, the girl leaped towards Harvest and raked her fingers across Harvest's chest. The creature stumbled backwards and grasped his chest as if in pain.

"This is impossible!" protested Harvest. "I must analyze this recent turn of events and adapt accordingly." Then, in a blur, Harvest disappeared as he raced away in the opposite direction.

Wanda and Todd looked at the red girl with the crystal skin. She looked at them as if she were a timid creature. Then, they noticed her long fingers, and saw why she had been able to slice through the tendrils. They were all long, like individual red blades. Wanda and Todd stood on their feet and started to approach the girl. She took a few steps back as the got closer, apparently she seemed to be afraid of them.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you," explained Wanda in her gentle voice. "We only want to say thank you. What's your name?" The girl remained silent, and simply stared at Wanda. Wanda held out her hand for a moment, offering it to the girl. After a few moments, the girl approached Wanda's hand and looked at it. Then, the red-crystal girl gently raised her long fingers and placed them in Wanda's hand. Wanda, then used her other hand and rubbed it gently across the young girl's crystal-like hand. "You can't speak, can you?"

"This is all very touching, but what do we do now?" asked Todd.

Wanda looked at Todd, and the smile that had appeared on her face disappeared as the past events came flooding back to her. "We will get my brother back!" Wanda declared. "We have been separated for too long. I will not lose him again. Not like this!"

"Well, if you really want to get him back, you're going to need some help," said Todd. "And I know just the people who're stupid enough…" began Todd. Then, he looked into Wanda's eyes and saw that the word stupid had only angered her more. "I mean kind enough to help you do it."

"Who?" asked Wanda.

Todd looked at Wanda, and saw the determination in his eyes. Whatever chances he may have had of fleeing and staying out of danger, were now gone. There was no way he could change her mind now. Todd sighed, and reluctantly he answered, "The X-Men."

TO BE CONTINUED…


	4. Shadows of the Heart

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.
****

Shadows of the Heart

(Invasion Part III)

By

Moonchampion

Scott watched Ororo as she examined the unconscious Paige Guthrie. Ororo's eyes moved from the young girl's lower back to the MRI scans being displayed on a screen. Ororo sighed and glanced at Scott. She could tell that he was stressed and upset that his own actions were responsible for Paige's current condition. Ororo turned the screen off, and pulled the bed sheet up to Paige's waist, as the girl lay on her stomach.

"Well?" asked Scott nervously.

"It seems that she's going to be fine," replied Ororo. "The force from your optic blast was too strong for her diamond husk to refract all of the force. When she shed the skin, her flesh absorbed the force and the pain simply washed over her at once." Ororo heard a sigh of relief escape Scott's mouth as he stepped closer towards Paige.

Then, the door of the infirmary burst open, and Jono came charging through with pure fear in his eyes. He searched the room quickly and saw Paige lying motionless on the gurney at the far side of the room. Jono rushed to her side, and took her hand into his. Scott also noticed that he wasn't alone. Jean had led him to the infirmary and was now slowly approaching the rest of them.

_"Will she be okay?"_ asked Jono telepathically. He looked up at Ororo as she nodded in the boy's direction. _"How did this happen?"_

"It's my fault," began Scott. "We had a little accident in the Danger Room."

_"An accident!"_ spat Jono. _"Why don't you stay away from her, mate, heh? That way we can avoid any future accidents."_

"Look, I know that you're upset, but Paige going to be fine," said Scott.

_"You're right,"_ said Jono, as he rounded on Scott. _"She is going to be fine, because you're going to stay away from her."_ Jono lifted his arm and shoved Scott away from the bed.

Scott was obviously becoming upset. His brow furrowed as he took a step closer towards Jono and stood eye-to-eye with the young mutant. "Listen, I think that's a decision for Paige to make, not you," replied Scott as he clenched his teeth.

_"I'm not about to let a bloody bloke like you, harm Paige again. Understand? So stay away from her,"_ warned Jono. _"Otherwise, there's likely to be another accident around here. Got it, chum?"_

Scott stared into Jono's eyes as he prepared to respond, but he felt two small hands tug on his arm. He turned to find Jean grabbing onto his arm. Scott then looked towards Ororo, who was standing there with her arms folded. She obviously didn't approve of his current behavior. "I think we should give him some time alone with her, Scott," whispered Jean.

Scott looked back at Jean, and then turned his attention back to Paige. Jono was now sitting next to the bed with Paige's hand in his. He sighed and left the infirmary abruptly. Once he was outside, Scott's frustration began to show.

"Who does that guy think he is, huh?!" said Scott.

"Scott, you have to understand, that he's very close to Paige," explained Jean. "He's only trying to protect her."

"I don't care," said Scott. "He has no right to tell me I can't see her."

"Scott, why are you making such a big deal out of this?" asked Jean.

"Because," began Scott. Then, he sighed as he looked into Jean's eyes. "Forget it, you wouldn't' understand." Scott turned away and started to face the wall that was behind him.

"You're right! I wouldn't!" said Jean, her voice sounding as if it were cracking. Then, she stormed off towards the stairs.

"Jean! Wait!" called Scott, but Jean kept going and didn't look back. Scott looked at the infirmary door once again, and sighed. The last few minutes of his life had just become the most complex. Par of him wanted to go after Jean, and find out what was wrong. However, another part of him couldn't bear to leave Paige, not now. He couldn't decide what to do. So, Scott remained where he was, alone, and tried to figure out what was happening.

Monet and Clarice were sitting on the couch talking to each other. Kurt and Evan watched closely as the two girls chatted away. Evan eyes were completely locked on the two girls as he took a sip of his soda. He sat the glass on the counter and nudged Kurt on his arm to get his attention. Kurt, who was also watching the pair of girls, turned to face Evan.

"This is it, Elf," said Evan. "I'm going in."

"You've got to be kidding," replied Kurt as he smiled. "She's totally going to shoot you down."

"You're wrong," said Evan. "There's now way Monet will be able to resist my charm. So, sit back and watch the master at work."

"It's your funeral," said Kurt as Evan rose from his seat.

Evan began to venture across the living room as he approached the pair of girls. When he stopped in front of the couch, the girls' conversation ceased and they look up at him. Evan cleared his throat as he sat on the end of the couch next to Monet.

"So, how are you two enjoying yourselves?" he asked. The girls nodded approvingly. Clarice was smiling, however Monet's face appeared to be completely devoid of emotion. "Uh, Monet, I was wondering if you'd be interested in a tour of the mansion?"

"Listen, Aaron," began Monet.

"Uh, it's Evan," he replied.

"Right," said Monet. "I know what you're thinking, but it just won't work between us. I'm sure you're really a nice guy, but I sort of seeing someone right now."

"Sort of?" asked Evan.

"Yeah, she's been waiting for Everett to ask her out," chimed Clarice.

"Clarice!" Monet said.

"It's okay. I get it," replied Evan. "Didn't mean to bother you. Excuse me." Evan backed off, and headed back towards the counter where Kurt was now filling Evan's glass with more soda.

"Here," said Kurt as he slid Evan the glass of soda. "I tried to varn you, mein Freund."

"Yeah, I know," began Evan. "I think I'm going to get some air."

"Vant some company?" Kurt offered.

"Nah, Elf," replied Evan. "I'd rather be alone for a while." Evan rose from his seat, leaving his glass of soda untouched. The young mutant headed for the patio door. Once the shut door behind Evan, Kurt realized he wasn't alone.

Kurt turned around to see Clarice with her elbows resting on the counter and her chin nested on top of her hands. Her eyes were staring dreamily into Kurt's eyes, and then he noticed the smile on her face as well. "Hello, Kurt."

"Hi," said Kurt. For the first time in his life, Kurt Wagner found himself speechless. As he stared at the lavender-skinned girl in front of him, he couldn't think of anything to say. He was completely hypnotized by her exotic beauty. His thoughts were lost as he examined her lavender skin and vibrant red hair. Then, Kurt felt himself come back to reality as he heard giggles erupt form Clarice's mouth. Then, he realized he had been staring at her with his mouth open.

"Sorry," said Kurt. "I didn't mean t-to stare." Kurt heard the giggles slip from Clarice's mouth again. Kurt cursed himself for acting like a fool. "I guess I'm a little nervous."

"Well," began Clarice. She leaned very close to Kurt, and only stopped when the tips of their noses touched. "I think you're kinda cute when you're nervous."

"Y-you do?" Kurt chuckled nervously.

"How about we play a game, Kurt?" asked Clarice.

"A game? Sure. Vat kind of game?" said Kurt.

"Let's play hide-n-seek," Clarice replied. She backed away from Kurt and stood in the middle of the room. "I'll hide. You seek. If you find me, you win."

"Vat do I vin?" asked Kurt, sounding enthused by the prospect of the game.

"You'll have to find me first," teased Clarice as she bit her lip. Then, above her head a golden disk of energy opened in the middle of the air. Clarice winked at Kurt, and leaped through the opening. The opening closed, and everyone in the room looked towards them.

"Vait!" shouted Kurt. Then, the furry, blue mutant disappeared in a cloud of brimstone.

Kitty looked over her shoulder as Kurt vanished in the explosion of brimstone. She turned her gaze back to the television and continued to watch the slasher flick. Everett, Rogue and Jubilee were all sitting on the floor watching the film as well. "Do you think he'll be able to find her?" asked Kitty.

The sound of Jubilee's bubble gum popping caught Kitty's attention. "I betcha ten bucks, she lets him find her," said Jubilee. However, before Kitty could respond, screams erupted from all four of their mouths as the killer in the film exploded through a window a grabbed the unsuspecting female victim.

Meanwhile on the couch, Monet shook her head at the sight of her frightened peers. "Who couldn't see that coming?" Monet said to herself. However, seeing there was nothing else to do, Monet joined the rest of the kids on the floor and watched the film. Fortunately, she was able to squeeze herself into the small gap between Jubilee and Everett. Yet, she refused to get up, even when Jubilee insisted she was sitting on the remote control.

Evan could feel the grass crush under his feet as he walked across the lawn under the moonlight. Monet's rejection of his proposal weighed pretty heavy on his heart. Although he had expected the rejection, he hadn't expected her to be so blunt about it. She made it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested in him. Then, he paused and lifted his arm and sniffed. "It's got to be my deodorant," he told himself. Then, Evan heard the rustle of some bushes nearby. Evan turned his attention into the direction of the noise.

Then, he saw the bushes move. As a reflex, the spikes began to emerge from Evan's arms as he slowly approached the rustling bush. Suddenly, the Toad exploded from the shrubbery and tackled Evan. Evan rolled with the momentum, and then pushed the Toad off of him with his feet. Toad landed flat on his back, and before he could get up, two bone spikes landed on both sides of his head just missing his skin.

"What are you doing here, Toad?" asked Evan. He was standing over Toad with another spike aimed directly at Toad's face. "I'm not asking again?"

"Please, we mean you no harm," said a voice from behind. Evan turned and felt his jaw dropped as he gazed upon the beautiful, scarlet brunette emerging from the shrubbery. "As a matter of fact, we need your help."

The moment of bliss faded away once Evan realized she was here with Todd Tolansky, the Toad. He thought it would be better if he tried not to display his attraction towards her until he understood the situation. "My help? What are you talking about?" asked Evan. "And who are you anyway?"

"My name is Wanda," she stated. "Listen, there is no time to explain. Some creature attacked my brother and his friends. It absorbed them, and now it's after us." Wanda stepped closer to Evan and looked into his eyes. "Todd said that you could help me free them. Can you?"

"Sure, come on. Let's head back to the house," said Evan. "The Professor needs to know that thing is in Bayville."

"You already know what I'm talking about?" asked Wanda.

"Yeah, it attacked some of our friends earlier," explained Evan. "But they're from Massachusetts. So, if that thing is here in Bayville, then we don't have any time to waste. Come on."

"Wait," said Wanda. She turned to face the shrubs once again, and motioned for someone to come out. "Come on. It's okay. You're safe here." The shrubs began to shake as another form emerged from the bushes. It was a young girl with red crystal like skin, and the fingers like small blades. She approached Wanda and the others cautiously, always keeping her eyes on Evan.

"Look, can we go inside now?" said Todd. "That thing could be here right now!"

"Would you stop worrying," said Evan. "Our defenses wouldn't let anything on the grounds without us knowing about it."

"Well, how do you explain us?" protested the Todd.

"Uh?" began Evan. 

"Or better yet, how do you explain that?!" shouted Todd. Then, he turned and started leaping in the direction of the house. Evan turned to see what had scared him off, and found a large black and gold humanoid creature towering over him. The creature swung his arm and smacked Evan across the lawn.

When, Evan looked up, he noticed the creature had its tentacles wrapped around Wanda's ankle and was slowly pulling her towards him. Evan got to his feet and ran towards the creature. Evan fired several darts at the tentacles and managed to sever the connection. "Back off, creep!" shouted Evan as he stood between Wanda and the creature.

"Fool, I am Harvest! There is no way you can stop me!" roared the creature. Then, Harvest swung at Evan so fast, he barely saw Harvest's hand move. Evan turned with the momentum of he punch and felt another punch collide with his face. This punch put Evan on the ground and looked up. How was it possible that the thing was that fast? The only person he knew who was that fast was Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver.

"You always were too slow, Evan," stated Harvest.

"How do you know my name?" asked Evan as he stared up at Harvest.

"I think it's time that you found out," replied Harvest. Then, Evan felt a tentacle wrap around his waist, and began to draw him towards Harvest. He looked over and saw Wanda being dragged as well. Her fingers were clawing into the moist ground trying to free herself from his clutches. "Give up you two. Resistance is futile."

Suddenly, a lightning bolt struck Harvest in the chest, and his grips on Wanda and Evan were released. Evan looked up and saw Storm floating in the sky. He grabbed Wanda's hand they both started to dash away from Harvest. Harvest grasped his chest and looked up into the sky at Storm. Then, he opened his mouth, and a piercing scream sent Storm falling to the ground. Evan saw his aunt fall slowly to the ground.

"Auntie O!" cried Evan. He started to run to her aide, but felt Wanda's hand hold him back.

"No! You mustn't!" protested Wanda. Then, just as Evan freed himself, Storm became engulfed in Harvest. Evan looked at the sight in horror as the skin of Harvest began to close and cause Storm to disappear from view.

"Now, it is your turn," said Harvest. He raised his hands into the air, and a strong gust of wind hit Evan and Wanda and sent them flying towards the house. They landed on the ground a few feet from the patio door. Evan started to get to his feet. He looked over at Wanda, she was unconscious. Evan's spikes came flying out of his arms as he prepared to defend Wanda and himself from Wanda.

Clarice crawled to the edge of the roof, and started to look down. She believed Kurt would never find her up there, but she would be able to see all the places he would look her. The grin grew larger on Clarice's face, but slowly faded as she saw a shadow begin to cover her.

"Gotcha!" cried Kurt as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Clarice was startled by the touch and jumped. She almost fell, but Kurt used his weight to pull her back. However, he wasn't able to keep his balance and the two young mutants began to roll down the roof. They came to a halt in as they just before they reached the edge. A sigh of relief escaped both of their mouths.

Then, they looked at each other. During their escapade down the roof, Clarice had somehow ended up on top of Kurt and was now facing him. Kurt could feel her long red hair rest on his neck as both of them stared at each other panting. "Vell, I found you. So, vat do I vin?"

Clarice smiled as she down at Kurt. She brought her hand to his face and brushed the blue strands of his hair aside, so that she could see his face clearly. "This," she replied. Clarice closed her eyes and started to lean closer to Kurt's face. He could feel her warm breath blow over his lips when they heard the scream. Both of them looked down from the roof to find Harvest, standing only a few feet from Evan and some other girl. "It's Harvest! Come on! We have to save them!"

Clarice quickly got off of Kurt and to her feet. She opened a portal on the roof and leaped inside of it. She disappeared into the roof, and the golden disc disappeared. Kurt followed her lead, and disappeared in a cloud of brimstone.

"You time has finally come, X-Man," said Harvest. Just as the tentacles began to erupt from Harvest, the red, crystal-skinned girl leaped onto Harvest's back and began clawing away. Harvest cried out in pain as he tried to reach back and grab his attacker. Suddenly, a cloud of brimstone exploded just in front of Harvest. Kurt's foot connected with Harvest and sent him stumbling backwards. The crystal-skinned girl leaped off of Harvest's back and her momentum caused him to fall into the pool.

Suddenly, a golden disc appeared on the ground next to Wanda. Clarice's head emerged from the disc. Evan looked down at Clarice as he began to wrap Wanda's arms around his neck. "Come with me if you want to live!" she said.

Kurt came and wrapped Wanda's other arm around his neck. A smile was on his face as he watched Clarice disappear into the golden disc. "A comedian in the face of danger," said Kurt. "A woman after my heart." Then, Kurt and Evan leaped into the golden disc with Wanda, right after the crystal-skinned girl dove in. Then, the golden disc disappeared.

Harvest emerged from the pool and arrived at the golden disc just as it disappeared. He stared at the place where the portal had just been, however, his thoughts were interrupted. A red beam of energy hit him in the arm, and Harvest grasped the point of impact in pain. He turned to find that he had been surrounded by members of both Generation X the X-Men.

Cyclops's visor was still glowing red as he stared down at Harvest. Chamber's chest and mouth were glowing with golden psionic energy. M was floating in the air, ready attack, and on the other side, floating and glowing in an aura of every color, Synch was ready as well. Jubilee was blowing bubbles, and had her visor down over her eyes as sparks erupted from her fingertips. And Shadowcat stood next to Logan, who had his claw unleashed and was ready to pounce.

"You realize you're trespassing?" said Wolverine. Harvest simply stared at his attackers, waiting for them to make their move. "Hmm, the silent type, huh? Well, I guarantee before the night's over you're goin' to be screamin'."

"That's not a bad idea," said Harvest. Then, he opened his mouth, and the supersonic pitch that escaped his lips caused the lives of everyone their to flash before their eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	5. From Bad To Worse

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

From Bad to Worse

(Invasion Part IV)

By

Moonchampion

As the supersonic pitch filled the air, Shadowcat clasped her hands against her ears as she tried to drown out the sound. She looked around herself, and saw that everyone seemed to be doing the same. Then, her eyes fell on Wolverine. He was completely out. His hyper sense of hearing must have made him lose consciousness completely. Then, Shadowcat saw a gold and black tendril wrap around Wolverine's torso, and began to pull him forward.

"No!" Shadowcat heard someone shout. It was Jubilee. She quickly rose to her feet, and ran in front of Harvest. "Do you really think that's going to work on us? We're teenagers!" Then, an explosion of fireworks erupted from her fingertips. The flash was so bright, that Harvest's scream ceased as he brought his hands up to cover his eyes.

Then, before Harvest could open his eyes, to beams of energy hit him directly in his chest. Cyclops and Chamber unleashed a pair of blasts with as much energy as they could manage. They were both still dazed from the effects of the sonic blast. However, their combined force was strong enough to send Harvest crashing through the behind him. 

"Kitty, is Wolverine okay?" asked Cyclops.

"He's out cold," she reported.

"Get him out of here, and meet the others at the blackbird," ordered Cyclops.

"How? He ways like a ton!" said Kitty as she strained to lift Wolverine.

"Here, I'll help you," said M. She stepped forward and lifted Wolverine without even straining. Then, Kitty placed her hands on both Wolverine and M. All three of them began to slowly phase through the ground, and out of sight.

"So, now what do we do?" asked Synch.

Before Cyclops could answer he felt the ground move beneath his feet. Then, without warning, the portion of the ground erupted into the air like a fist, and hit Cyclops directly in the chin. It was a knockout blow, because he lost consciousness at the moment of impact. Cyclops fell to the ground a few feet from where he had been standing.

Chamber, Jubilee and Synch all turned their attention back to the house. Through the broken shards of glass, they could see Harvest standing there. He slowly began to step through the broken window and approach his opponents. As he got closer, the three remaining Generation X students backed up and began to clump closer together.

_"All right, mates,"_ said Chamber, _"give 'em everything you got!"_

A strong blast of psoinic energy began to erupt from the mouth and chest cavity of Chamber. He was puttying everything he had into his blast. Synch had decided to "synch" up with Chamber. When he did, he was surrounded by an aura of colorful energy, as the bio-blast erupted from his fists. Jubilee also unleashed a volley of fireworks at Harvest. However, after a moment, their powers began to slowly die down, as if they had all run out of energy.

"Hey! What gives?!" protested Jubilee.

"Pitiful," said Harvest. Three golden tendrils exploded from his body and wrapped themselves around the necks of the members of Generation X. They brought their hands to the tendrils and tried to free themselves, but it was useless. "You still don't understand do you? I gain the powers of all the mutants I absorb. I used the telepathy of your own teacher, Emma Frost, to shut your powers down. And soon, I'll have you're powers as well."

Their resistance was valiant, but futile. Within a few seconds, Jubilee, Chamber and Synch were absorbed by Harvest. Harvest could feel his power grow, and savored every moment of it. Then, he turned his attention to Cyclops, who had now begun to stir awake.

"Well, Summers," said Harvest, "it looks like it's your turn." As Harvest approached Cyclops, the young X-Man rushed to his feet and tried to gain his balance. "Are you going to put up a fight as well?"

Cyclops looked around, and saw that everyone else was gone. He was here by himself, and there was no one that could help him against Harvest. The alien was already powerful, but now he had the combined power of nearly a dozen mutants. Right now, there were only to choices for Cyclops: to fight or to give up, and Cyclops wasn't planning on giving up.

"Well," said Cyclops, "I'd hate to be a disappointment." Then, Cyclops unleashed an optic blast. The blast soared just past Harvest's head. Harvest allowed several tendrils to explode from his chest towards Cyclops. The young teen fired optic blasts to incinerate the tendrils before they could reach him. However, upon seeing he had missed a few, he instinctively rolled out of the line of fire. Then, Cyclops felt something grab his leg. He looked down to find a gold and black metallic cord had wrapped around his leg and was pulling him towards Harvest.

"I warned you boy," said Harvest as he pulled Cyclops closer. "Now, it your turn to be absorbed as well."

"Let's see how you like it!" shouted a voice. The next thing Cyclops saw was Harvest crying out in pain as the tendril released his leg. Harvest fell to his knee, and the cause of his pain became clear. Rogue was holding onto Harvest with her bare hands. The longer Rogue held on, golden and black metallic objects began to appear on her face, and cover her body. She also began to scream out in pain the longer she held on.

"Rogue!" cried Cyclops. "Rogue, let go!"

"I can't!" yelled Rogue. Cyclops noticed that her voice sounded as if it had been digitized. Cyclops took careful aim with his visor. Just as he was about to fire, he felt a hand pull his arm away. It was Jean. Cyclops halted his attempt, and decided to let Jean handle the situation.

Jean brought her hands against her temple and used her telekinetic powers to pull Harvest and Rogue apart. The strain of the task was apparent on Jean's face. She appeared to want to cry out in pain. However, just as she was about to release her telekinetic grip, Harvest and Rogue came apart. Jean stumbled backwards and Cyclops braced the small of her back with his hand.

"Jean, are you okay?" asked Scott.

"Yes, but let's check on Rogue before he wakes up," said Jean.

The two teens raced over to fellow X-Men, and the sight before them was caused nothing but utter terror to appear on their faces. Cyclops kneeled down and lifted Rogue into his arms. Her body was completely covered with golden and black metallic components, and she was unconscious. Tears began to flow from Jean's eyes as a squeaky sob escaped her lips.

"Come on, let's get to the Blackbird," said Cyclops. "Maybe the Professor can help her." Both of them raced as quickly as they could to the lower levels of the mansion to the hangar, with Rogue in tow. Their only hope was that they would be able to help Rogue somehow.

The doors of the hanger slid open, and Cyclops and Jean came dashing through it. The Professor slid down the ramp from the Blackbird and approached his eldest students. Cyclops and Jean halted once they reached the Professor. Professor Xavier looked at Rogue's body and felt his heart break into pieces.

"What happened?" he asked.

"She tried to stop Harvest," explained Cyclops. "She tried to save me. And I couldn't save her."

"Now, is not the time for grief, Scott," said the Professor. "We will do all we can for Rogue. However, right now, you need to get her aboard the Blackbird. We must leave the mansion immediately."

Cyclops began to climb the stairs, and then paused. "What about the others? What about the files on Cerebro?"

"I have already downloaded Cerebro's files onto several disks, and erased the main computer. The disks are already aboard," explained the Professor. "As for the others Scott, we can't help them if we fall victim to Harvest's attack as well. Now, hurry."

Scott continued up the ramp and entered the Blackbird. Then, Jean ran behind the Professor's wheelchair and began to push him up the ramp and into the Blackbird. The Professor hung his head as they moved up the ramp. How could he have let things get this bad? And how could he remedy the tragic actions of Harvest? Would it even be possible to save the lives of Harvest's victims?

"Ahh!" shouted Jean. The Professor felt his wheelchair began to roll backwards. As it hit the floor of the hangar, the chair tilted over and the Professor crashed to the floor. Professor Xavier looked up to see Jean being engulfed by Harvest.

"Jean! No!" shouted the Professor. Then, a golden, black tendril wrapped around his waist and began to pull him towards Harvest as well. The Professor pounded his fists against Harvest's tendrils, but it was useless.

"Jean! Professor!" shouted Cyclops. He ran to the door of the Blackbird, and saw two of the people he cared most about being pulled inside of Harvest. Cyclops tried to rush out the door, but felt someone pull him back. "No! Let go! I have to help them!"

"You can't help them now, Junior," said Wolverine as he pulled Cyclops back into the plane. The door slid shut right in front of Cyclops's face. "'Crawler, fire this bird up, and get us airborne! Yesterday!"

Cyclops felt the Wolverine's grip release, and felt the pain as it exploded in his gut. The Blackbird began to roll across the hangar deck, and then lifted into the air. Wolverine started to head for the cockpit, but felt Cyclops's arm turn him around. "Why?! Why did you stop me?! I could have saved them!"

"Look kid," began Wolverine. "There was nothing you could do."

"Liar!" cried Scott. Wolverine could see the angry expression on his face as tears rolled from under his visor. "You don't care! You don't care about any of them!"

"Sit down, kid," said Wolverine quietly. Then, he turned around and started towards the cockpit again. However, Scott grabbed his arm and wheeled around once more. Wolverine brushed Cyclops's hand off of his arm and stared at the young mutant eye-to-eye. "Look, I said 'sit down!' And if you don't sit down, I'm gonna make it so that you can't get up! Got it?" Wolverine turned and proceeded towards the cockpit, then he came to a stop. "I know that you wanted to help 'em Scott, but there was nothing you could do back there, and you know it. Your best chance of helpin' them, is being here with us." Wolverine looked at Scott who simply lowered his head and silently stared down at the floor of the Blackbird.

Wolverine headed into the cockpit, where Nightcrawler was sitting in the pilot's seat and Blink was sitting next to him in the co-pilot chair. Wolverine tapped the lavender-skinned girl on the shoulder. She immediately stood up and allowed Logan to take her seat. Blink moved until she stood behind Nightcrawler's chair. She started to lean on his chair as she stared into the sky through the windshield.

"So, vhere are ve going?" asked Nightcrawler.

Wolverine glanced at the control panel, and then turned his gaze forwards. "The Professor wanted to head back to Snow Valley. He believes the answers we need to stop that thing are there."

All three mutants in the cockpit remained quiet. Kurt and Clarice briefly exchanged a glance. Kurt could see the worry in her eyes. She placed her hand on Kurt's shoulder, and then he placed his on top of hers. Logan caught the brief exchange and then turned his attention back to the empty skies.

"What are you doing here?!" said Monet.

The red, crystal-skinned girl moved slowly from the corner and approached Monet. When she got close enough, Monet kneeled down and wrapped her arms around the crystal-skinned girl, who did the same and returned the gesture.

"You know her?" said Wanda. Wanda sat up, and grabbed the side of her head with her hand. She was obviously still feeling some pain. She almost toppled over, but Todd grabbed her and straightened her back up.

"Of course I do," replied Monet. "Her name is Penance. She's the combination of my twin sisters, Claudette and Nicole St. Croix. She's trapped in this form, thanks to a villain called Emplate. Who just happens to be my brother, Marius."

"Whoa, talk about a dysfunctional family," said Todd. He began to chuckle, however, when all eyes turned on him, his laughter seemed to die away. "Well, only when using the term very loosely."

"How did she get to Bayville?" asked Wanda. "Did she come with the rest of you to see Xavier?"

"No," replied Monet. "She's always had a way in disappearing when she doesn't want to be found, and reappearing when she likes. However, how she got here, I can't say."

"Maybe Harvest brought her here," said Kitty.

"No, I doubt it," said Wanda. "She doesn't seem to like it very much. From what I've seen, the monster would have had great trouble bringing her to New York, all the way from Massachusetts."

"Well, I don't care how she got here," said Monet. "I'm just glad she's safe." Monet squeezed Penance closer, and when she pulled away, she saw that her red and yellow jumpsuit had several rips and tears in it. She looked at Penance, who appeared nervous after seeing the tears in Monet's suit. "It's okay. As long as you're safe." Penance's nervousness seemed to fade away and was replaced by a smile.

The stirring and groans of Rogue interrupted the calmness in the cabin. Her voice still sounded slightly digitized. Her eyes began to flutter open. She was still covered with black and gold metallic bits. As she sat up, her eyes fell upon each of the inhabitants. Then, she opened her mouth and said softly, "Must stop Harvest."

"Scott?" called Paige. Scott lifted his head to see the blonde teenage girl smiling faintly at him. She obviously wanted to cheer him up, but didn't know how to go about it. "You know, Logan's right. There really wasn't anything you could have done back there."

Scott looked into Paige's eyes, and the pain he had previously felt began to grow. He sighed and swallowed hard before looking at Paige again. "I know. You're right. And so is Logan," he stated. "I'm not angry with Logan for stopping me, I'm upset with myself."

"What are you talking about? You just said that you know there was nothing you could do," said Paige sounding confused.

Scott looked into Paige's eyes. "I'm talking about you," said Scott softly. He noticed that Paige looked shocked that he had mentioned her name, but she also appeared to have a sense of relief. "I feel this… this attraction towards you. At first I thought it was just a sense of competition between us, but it's more than that."

Scott looked up and saw that Paige was nodding along. She seemed to be indicating that she understood, and possibly felt the same way. This made the next words to come out of Scott's mouth harder to say. "But, now I know that those feelings were simply that, an attraction. When Jean cried out, the only thing in the world that mattered to me, was getting to her. Even though I know there was nothing I could do, I just felt I had to try."

Scott looked at Paige, and could see tears begin to flow from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Paige," he apologized. "I shouldn't have said anything now."

"No," said Paige. "I know how you feel. I feel the same attraction that you do, but my heart always has belonged to Jono. I can't even explain it. He really ticks me off sometimes, but…."

Scott nodded that he understood, and Paige grabbed his hand and squeezed it. They both started to smile, apparently both of them were relieved to have confessed their feelings. "Well, I think it's about time we got our friends back," said Scott.

"Scott! Paige!" called Monet. "Rogue's waking up." The two teens made their way to the back of the Blackbird, where Rogue had been laying. Wanda was also up and around as well. Todd leaned as closely as he could to the wall of the plane, apparently not wanting to get close to Rogue. Kitty and Evan were at Rogue's side trying help her up.

"Rogue, are you okay?" asked Scott. Scott looked at Rogue's golden black metallic skin. He even noticed that her hair had been covered with the same metal, and was now standing on top of her head, albeit in every direction.

Kitty and Evan helped Rogue to her feet. Once she was standing, she looked into the eyes of Scott. She smiled and said in her digitized voice, "Must stop Harvest. Tried to stop Harvest, but too weak. You help me stop Harvest."

"Rogue, what are you talking about?" said Scott.

"Oh, you are referring to this vessel," said Rogue, and shook her head. "I am not Rogue. I am Warlock. I am here to stop Harvest. You will help Warlock?"

"Wait, hold on a sec. If you're Warlock, then where's Rogue?" asked Kitty.

"Rogue is here," replied Warlock, as he gestured at the body. "She helped Warlock. Since, Warlock not strong enough himself, she lent Warlock her body until Warlock strong enough. Now, you help Warlock stop Harvest?"

"Okay," began Evan, "now everything has officially gone from weird to outright freaky!"

"Yeah," replied Todd. "We just left Star Trek, and stepped into the Twilight Zone!"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Friend or Foe?!

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

Friend or Foe?!

(Invasion Part V)

By

Moonchampion

****

The teenage passengers aboard the Blackbird stared, with complete awe, at their companion, Rogue. Her skin was covered with black and gold metal, and her hair (also covered with the metal) stood on its ends. As far as they knew, Rogue had loaned her body to an entity called Warlock. Warlock is also a member of the Phalanx. However, he seems to have a different agenda than that of Harvest.

"Okay, Warlock," began Scott, "let me get this straight. Rogue has given you permission to use her body until you're strong enough to act on your own?"

"That is correct," Warlock replied. It was weird to for them to talk to Rogue as if she were another person. Nevertheless, they knew they had to accept what was happening in order to save their friends.

"I hate to sound skeptical," said Kitty, "but how do we know that we can trust you? How do we know that this isn't a trap set by Harvest to lure us in?"

"He's telling the truth," reported Monet. "I can sense Rogue within Warlock. She's safe and content within him. She hasn't been harmed. As a matter of fact, it seems that Warlock saved her life."

"What are you talking about?" asked Evan.

"Perhaps it's best that I explained what happened," interrupted Warlock. "Perhaps I should start from the beginning."

The teens all eyed each other with looks of concern. Then, they all found themselves a seat, and turned their attention to Warlock. Once everyone was paying attention, Warlock began.

"For almost three of your solar cycles, Harvest has run amok across the galaxy. He has ventured to several planets, and done exactly what he has done here. Our race has the ability to assimilate matter and make it apart of ourselves. However, the consumption of biological matter has a different effect. The consumption of biological matter is probably best understood as a form of reproduction for our race.

"Harvest disobeyed the directives our people and left our collective. He began to travel to planets and consume the beings of those worlds, creating his own Phalanx Empire. He returned to our home world and destroyed all those that would not convert to his directive. Only a few of us escaped his wrath, and we have spent most of that time trying to stop Harvest.

"However, Harvest eventually found us, and as punishment absorbed us so that we had no choice but to follow his will. We lost our individuality, and became a part of his consciousness. But, when Rogue tried to absorb Harvest's powers, she severed my consciousness from Harvest, and set me free."

"What about our friends?" asked Paige. "There has to be some way to stop Harvest without hurting our friends?"

"Most likely your friends are no longer within Harvest," answered Warlock.

"You mean we're too late?!" exclaimed Kitty.

"No, the complete metamorphosis takes nearly 12 of your Earth hours. There is still time to reverse the process and free your companions," said Warlock. "Harvest uses his body to detain whomever he absorbs in stasis until he places them inside an assimilation unit. If the biological specimen is removed from the unit before the process is complete, then their assimilation is aborted."

"Then, we don't have a lot of time!" exclaimed Paige. "We only have about four hours before the first assimilations are complete."

"That's not true, Paige," said Warlock. "For some reason, Harvest is having trouble assimilating your mutant DNA. The activation of each of your individual X-factor genes makes it difficult to completely graph your genes onto his template."

"If he cannot graph our genes onto his templates, then how is he using our friends' powers?" asked Wanda.

"Harvest has found a way to mechanically mimic the powers of your friends. He hasn't gained their powers, but uses his mechanical enhancements to make you believe that he has," answered Warlock. "He generates ultrasonic pitches to mimic Sean Cassidy's sonic scream, and sends sonic pulses into the ground to simulate the powers of Lance Alvers."

"And what about our friends, Warlock?" asked Evan. "What happens to them if Harvest doesn't find a way to assimilate them?"

Warlock hesitated before answering. He allowed his gaze to fall upon each of the members of the cabin before speaking. "They will be terminated."

"Kurt! Look!" said Clarice. Kurt followed her finger to find what she was pointing at. His glance fell upon a mansion, which looked very similar to the Xavier Institute in Bayville.

"All right, Elf," grumbled Logan. "Maintain this position, while I alert the others." Logan got out of his seat and headed back into the cabin. Once he left the cockpit, Clarice slid into his seat and continued to stare out the window at her home. Kurt could tell that she was worried, by the look on her face.

"Everything vill be fine Clarice. I promise," said Kurt. Then, he looked down at his hand to find that it was now resting on top of Clarice's. His gaze slowly left his hand and focused on Clarice. She allowed a thin smile to spread across her face. She trusted Kurt. And after only a knowing him a few hours, she felt as if she had known him for a lifetime. At that moment, everything felt just right: the touch of his hand on hers, both of them alone together. Nothing had ever seemed so perfect.

"All right, Kurt," said Logan as he re-entered the cockpit. The hands of the teens quickly separated and disappeared from sight. "Set us down in the back. There should be a landing pad there." Kurt maneuvered the Blackbird steadily into the back of the mansion. He allowed the stealth jet to descend on the landing pad and shut the engines down. Then, both he and Clarice accompanied Logan into the cabin where the rest of their friends were waiting.

"All right here's the deal," began Logan. "Our main objective is to get our friends out of those tubes without hurtin' 'em. So, while some of us go in for the rescue, the others are runnin' interference for Harvest." Logan looked around at the faces of the teens before continuing. Luckily, none of them seemed to have lost their nerves, except the Toad who was shaking like leaf. "Nightcrawler, you and Blink are on re-con. You two are going to have to sneak in, find out where Bozo the alien his keepin' everyone and get 'em outta there."

Logan scanned the crowd of teens once more. His eyes landed on Evan and Wanda. "Evan, you and… what's your name again?" asked Logan as he looked at Wanda.

"My name is Wanda, Wanda Maximoff," she answered.

"Maximoff?! Maximoff as in Pietro Maximoff?!" asked Evan.

"Yes," she replied. "Pietro is my twin brother."

Evan seemed slightly disappointed. Just when he thought he had found the perfect girl, she turns out to be the sister of his biggest rival. He knew she had been a member of the Brotherhood, but he figured he could turn her like the X-Men did Rogue. However, trying to get her to turn her back on her own brother would be next to impossible.

"Vat about your code name?" asked Kurt. He could sense his friend's tension, and tried to lighten things up.

"Oh boy, here we go again?" said Scott softly.

"A code name?" asked Wanda.

"Yeah, something that describes you and your powers," added Clarice. "You know, like a code name from a James Bond movie."

Wanda looked at the colorful mutants, and was slightly confused by their enthusiastic behavior. "Okay, how about… Scarlet?" she asked. Clarice and Kurt looked at each other after hearing the name. It obviously didn't sit very well with them.

"Vell, to be honest, ve vere shooting for something not so…" began Kurt.

"Gone with the Wind," added Clarice.

"How about the Scarlet Witch," Evan suggested.

"Yes," said Wanda with a hint of relief. She turned to face Evan. "Thank you, I like it... Scarlet Witch. It has a nice ring to it."

"Are you guys are done playin' the freakin' name game?! Can we get back to business?" asked Logan. Silence began to fall over the teens as the noticed Logan's annoyance with their last exchange. "Good. Cyclops, Shadowcat, Husk, M, Toad and Rogue… uh Warlock, whatever… you guys are with me. We're runnin' interference."

"Uh, excuse me, but how are exactly are we going to do that?" asked the Toad.

"The old-fashioned way. We're goin' outside and makin' a whole lot o' noise," replied Logan. "All right, you four get a move on it. We'll cover ya." Blink instantly made a golden disc appear in the air. Then, she, Spyke, Scarlet Witch, and Nightcrawler disappeared into the disc. The golden portal disappeared after Blink entered.

Logan pulled his cowl over his face and stepped towards the door. He paused and turned to face the rest of his team. "All right, kiddies. It's showtime." He pressed he button and the door slip open. All of them exited the Blackbird cautiously and with stealth.

The teens followed Wolverine's lead, as they moved quietly to the back door of Snow Valley mansion. M paused briefly as she felt something tug on her leg. She turned to find Penance pulling her leg and gesturing in the opposite direction. "Uh, guys?" called M. "I think we just lost the element of surprise."

Everyone turned to see what M was talking about. Standing only a few yards away was Harvest, only he wasn't alone. Angelo, Sean Cassidy and Emma Frost were with Harvest, as well as the remaining members of the Brotherhood. However, their skin was covered with the same gold and black metal of the Phalanx.

"Oh my God. Angelo?" whispered Husk. "Ms. Frost? Mr. Cassidy?"

"Welcome, my friends," said Harvest as he stepped forward. An evil smile began to spread across his face. "I am truly pleased that you're here. You may all witness the fall of humanity. Because as of now, Earth belongs to the Phalanx Empire."

"No, Harvest! You are wrong!" shouted Warlock. Warlock stepped forward and stared into Harvest's eyes.

"Warlock? You have already failed once," said Harvest. "How can you possibly foresee a victory against me this time?"

"These kids are special," said Warlock. "They know what you are capable of, and they will not allow you to do it ever again. They will stop you!"

"It's not me that they have to fight," said Harvest. Harvest raised his hands, and the figures behind him stepped forward. The members of the Brotherhood, along with the Generation X members Angelo Espinosa, Sean Cassidy and Emma Frost, began to approach Harvest. "In order to save their precious planet, they'll have to fight those they wish to save." And without warning, they attacked.

"Take it easy guys!" called Wolverine. The Blob's fist came smashing in his direction. Wolverine leaped back and flipped in the air. When he landed on his feet, he found the Blob was charging him once again. This time, he leaped up and grabbed a tree branch. He pulled himself up, and rested on the limb as the Blob pounded at the trunk of the tree. "Remember we can't hurt 'em."

The base of the tree finally gave way, and Wolverine came tumbling down. Just as Wolverine was about to fall into the waiting clutches of the Blob, he felt something grab his arms. It was M. "Thanks for the lift," said Wolverine. 

"How are we going to win this thing, Mr. Logan?" asked M, as she turned back towards the battle.

"Have a little faith darlin'," said Wolverine. "'Cause Harvest just made a big mistake."

"What's that?" asked M.

"He just ticked me off!" answered Wolverine. Then, he and M disappeared once again in the midst of the battle.

The portal opened into a room filled with darkness. Nightcrawler, Blink, Spyke and the Scarlet Witch stepped through the portal and began to gaze into the darkness. Blink took the lead, and the others followed her as they moved through the mansion. 

"Where are we?" asked the Scarlet Witch.

"This is Mrs. Frost's room," said Blink.

Scarlet Witch stepped away from the others and found a pair of sliding doors. She pulled the doors apart, and a loud gasp escaped her lips. The others immediately ran to her side, and whatever fear they once had were replaced with confusion.

"Look!" shouted the Scarlet Witch. She stared fascinated beyond the sliding doors and marveled at the contents inside.

"It's a closet," said Spyke stilled perplexed by the Scarlet Witch's excitement.

"I know! Look at all these clothes!" The Scarlet Witch began to dive in the closet and search through the entire wardrobe. Nightcrawler and Spyke exchanged a look of wonder. How could she possibly be concerned about clothes right now? When they turned their attention back to the closet, they found that Blink had joined Scarlet Witch in her search through the wardrobe.

"Women," chimed the boys as they slapped their hands against their foreheads.

"Here try this!" cried Blink. The Scarlet Witch turned around as Blink placed a dark red cape over her shoulders. The frenzy inside the closet lasted only a minute, but when the Scarlet Witch re-emerged from the closet she was also wearing a pair of heeled go-go boots, a red tiara, and the red cape.

"What do you think boys?" asked the Scarlet Witch.

Both of the boys remained silent as they stared in complete awe. Nightcrawler shook his head, and brought his attention back to reality. The look he was getting from Blink helped him shake it off a lot sooner than Spyke. "Come on," said Nightcrawler. "Ve've vasted enough time. Ve still have to find the others."

Nightcrawler went to the door, and turned the knob. Once he pulled the door open, and saw what was waiting outside the door, he gasped. He quickly slammed the door shut, and turned to face the others.

"What's wrong, Elf?" asked Spyke. "You look like you just seen a ghost."

"Not quite," said Nightcrawler. Then, a fist smashed through the wooden door and started to wrap its arm around Nightcrawler's neck. The blue-furred teen quickly disappeared in a mist of brimstone and reappeared next to his friends. 

The rest of the door shattered to pieces as the assailants on the other side entered the room. It was Storm, Synch, Jean, and Chamber. Their bodies were totally covered with gold and black metal. They trampled into the room and glared at their one-time friends.

"Well looks like found them," said Blink.

"Yeah, but they don't look too happy to see us," said Spyke. "Come on, we can get out through the other door." The four teens raced for the other door, which exploded just before they reached the room. Shards of wood fell to the floor as Spyke and the others tried to get to their feet. Standing in the doorway were the metallic Jubilee and Professor X.

"Ve're too late!" cried Nightcrawler. "Harvest must have found a vay to assimilate the X-factor gene too."

The teens huddled closer together completely unaware of what do next. If they fought, they friends could get hurt. If they did nothing, they would be assimilated by the Phalanx as well. They continued to back away as the new members of the Phalanx came closer. Suddenly, they felt their backs bump against the wall, and their hopes of survival began to fade away.

TO BE CONCLUDED…


	7. High Price for Victory

Kurt Wagner could feel his tail brush up against the wall behind him as he backed away from the oncoming danger

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, or any of its original characters. Nor do I have any type of claim to those characters. However, the characters of my creation belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

****

High Price for Victory

(Invasion Part VI)

By

Moonchampion

Kurt Wagner could feel his tail brush up against the wall behind him as he backed away from the oncoming danger. In front of him, were his friends, however their bodies had been covered in a golden black metal and their minds had been corrupted by the evil Harvest of the Phalanx. Kurt stared helplessly at his friends: Storm, Jean Synch, Chamber, Jubilee and Professor X.

"Yo, Kurt!" called Spyke to his friend. "Make with the 'portin' man! We gotta get outta here!"

"I can't! I don't know this place vell enough to teleport safely," explained Kurt. "Ve could all end up inside a vall or vorse."

"What about you, Blink?!" asked Evan.

"All of us won't make it through the portal in time," she answered. "It looks like we may have to fight them."

"No you want," said Scarlet Witch. She took a slight step forward and raised her hands into the air. "Winds of Fate! Change!" Suddenly a pair of neon green balls of energy began to encircle her hands. Then, green bolts erupted from the balls and hit the floor. Suddenly, the floor opened up, and the metallic threat fell through the opening.

The four remaining teens stepped forward, and stared down into the hole. Their Phalanx-absorbed friends had fallen to the level below and were struggling to get to their feet. The three members of the Xavier Schools stared at the Scarlet Witch in awe.

"Come on," said Kurt as he motioned for the others to follow him.

"Where are we going?" asked Blink.

"To find some answers, and figure out how to change our friends back," replied Kurt. "Besides, I'd rather not be here ven they get up." The others quickly nodded and followed the blue-furred teen out carefully out of Ms. Frost's bedroom and into the hallway.

Blink paused for a moment and stared back into the bedroom. She winced as she quickly assessed the damage done to the room, then she slowly shook her head. "Ms. Frost is going to kill us for trashing her room." Finally, she turned and followed the rest of her friends into the hallway.

"HELP ME!" cried the Toad at the top of his lungs. He continued to leap as high as he possibly could to escape the speed demon, Quicksilver. The Toad kept glancinig over his shoulder to find his former ally only a inches behind him. Toad turned his eyes forward, and saw that another person was standing in front of him, blocking his path. It was Husk. "Run! He's right behind me!"

However, Husk stood her ground. Her skin was now coated with some shiny metal. The Toad didn't allow her to slow his escape. He continued towards her, and then leaped directly over her head. Quicksilver then saw the obstacle in his path, and decided to run directly over Husk. She continued to stand firm, and then the collision occurred. Quicksilver smashed directly into Husk, and then fell to the ground unconscious.

Husk looked down at the motionless Quicksilver. "Men. They think they can run everybody," said Husk. Then, she heard an ear-piercing shriek that made her fall to her knees. She openend her eyes slightly to find Sean Cassidy, the Banshee, using his ultra sonic blasts directly at her. Husk clinched her hands over her ears, but it was useless. She was helpless, and there was no way she could stand this for much longer.

Suddenly, the scream stopped, and Husk looked up to see the Banshee clenching his head. Then, out of nowhere, the Toad leaped into the air over the Banshee. As he started to decend, he extended his legs, and smashed his feet into Banshee's back. A few seconds later, Banshee's metallic covered body, was on the ground and unconscious.

"Nice job, Toad," said Husk. "But how did you distract him long enough to get the jump on him?"

"I didn't," answered the Toad. "While he was attacking you, he just started going crazy and all."

"Maybe he was trying to resist Harvest's control over him," suggested Husk.

"Look, you can figure it out while we're running," said the Toad. He took Husk by the hand and started to run.

"What are we running from?" asked Husk.

"That!" said the Toad. Husk turned around to find a metallic covered Blob running directly towards them. "I know you made like a roadblock against Quicksilver, but my gut tells me that the same thing won't work against him."

"I'm bettin' you're right," Husk agreed. "Let's go!" Then, both the teens began running as fast as their legs would carry them. Along the way, Husk began to peel her metallic skin off of her body, which was replaced with a tan substance.

"What kind of skin is that?" asked Toad as he tried to take in a breath while running.

"Rubber," she answered. Then, she started to hop, and found herself leaving the Toad behind.

"Hey! Wait up!" he called as he began to leap after her. Both of the teens continued to leap away from the Blob who continued to chase them, and knock over anything in his path.

Shadowcat covered her eyes as the ground in front of her exploded. A cloud of dirt and debris clouded her view and filled her lungs as she stumbled backwards and away from the cloud. By the time she could see clearly, Avalanche was walking towards her. Shadowcat, still coughing and gasping for a breath of air, stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. The gold metallic hand of Avalanche reached to grab Shadowcat, however, the tendrils now protruding from his fingertips passed through Shadowcat's body.

After a moment of confusion, Avalanche decided to try something different. The metal that was coating his skin began to ooze out like some sort of liquid and cover Shadowcat like some sort of cocoon. Shadowcat tried to move, but found that the metal was solid and she couldn't pass through. She looked down at her glove and noticed that the same golden black metal that covered Avalanche was now absorbing her glove. She quickly took the glove off and tossed it away. The cocoon continued to enclose around Shadowcat, as she helplessly coiled herself into a ball, trying to escape the metallic ooze.

Suddenly, an optic blast nailed Avalanche in the chest, and sent him soaring in the opposite direction. He landed a few feet away and appeared to be unconscious. Through a small opening Cyclops could see Shadowcat coiling herself tighter and tighter into a ball. He wanted to slice through with his optic blast, but thought that it may be too dangerous, especially if one of his beams went through and hit Kitty.

Suddenly, the answer presented itself in the form of Penance. The red-crystal skinned girl slowly approached Cyclops and looked down at the metal enclosing itself around Kitty. Cyclops pointed to the metallic cocoon and asked her, "Can you open it without hurting, Kitty?"

The girl remained silent and turned her attention to the cocoon. Suddenly, she charged towards the cocoon and began swiping away at it with her razor-sharp fingers. Her claws shredded through the metal like a knife through hot butter. Shadowcat quickly leapt out of the cocoon and rolled away. The metal tried to follow her and recapture it prey. However, an optic blast from Cyclops incinerated the metal and left it as nothing more than straps of charred metal.

"Kitty, are you okay?" asked Cyclops as he turned his attention to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," responded Shadowcat. Then, she turned her gaze towards Penance who was standing a few feet away from them, obviously still slightly apprehensive of them. "And thank you too," she said to Penance.

Penance slowly approached Shadowcat, but was halted as something a several golden metallic tendrils wrapped themselves around her throat. Penance was ready to slice at the tendrils, and free herself. However, she heard shouts for her not to do so. Her captor turned Penance around, and she understood why her friends had told her to stop. She was now being wrapped by fingers belonging to Angelo Espinosa, Skin of Generation X.

"Can you free her Cyclops?" asked Shadowcat.

"It's too risky. With her that close to him, I may hit her as well," he responded.

"Then, we'll just have to get her out of the way!" cried Shadowcat. Then, she dashed off towards Penance and Skin.

"Shadowcat! Wait!" cried Cyclops as he ran after her.

Shadowcat heard the warnings, but didn't listen to them. She continued to run towards Penance. Suddenly, she saw that Skin had noticed her approaching them. The metallic covered mutant wasted no time and began to fire tendrils from his other hand at her. Shadowcat dove to the ground and saw that it was a mistake. There was no way for her to get any closer without being touched. Penance's skin may be able to resist the alien metal of the Phalanx, but if her skin was touched she'd be assimilated.

Suddenly, a series of red bolts of energy soared over her head and met the tendrils, which retreated after being hit. Shadowcat looked back and saw Cyclops nailing each approaching tendril with absolute precision. 

"Keep going, Kitty. I'll cover you," said Cyclops.

Shadowcat got to her feet and continued towards Penance. Once she reached Penance, she grabbed her leg and started to phase. Suddenly, Penance began to phase through the grip Skin had on her. Once both of the mutant girls fell to the ground, Cyclops fired a huge optic blast that floored Skin, and left him unconscious.

"Is everyone all right?" asked Cyclops. Both of the girls nodded. "Good," he responded and let a breath of relief slip through his lips. "Kitty, you took a big chance trying to free Penance like that. How did you know….?"

"Well, it seems the Phalanx are mono-faceted. In other words, they can only focus on one target at a time. As far as I can tell, only Harvest can target more than one person at a time," Kitty answered.

"So what you're saying is while Skin was blocking my attack, you were able to phase Penance from his grasp," concluded Cyclops. Shadowcat nodded. "Good, then it's time to use that to our advantage. Attack each assimilated individual in small groups. Then, we can worry about Harvest."

Shadowcat nodded at Cyclops. Then, all three teens rushed back towards the battlefield with a sense of hope that victory was within their grasp.

M carried Wolverine back towards the battle. After a few seconds of scounting, Wolverine pointed out a direction to M. In that direction stood Harvest. Next to him, was Emma Frost. Harvest was busy battling Warlock, and from the looks of it, was winning with ease.

"You disappoint me, Warlock," said Harvest. "I really expected you to put up a better fight than this."

Warlock was on the ground gasping for air. He tried to get to his feet, however by the time he was half way up, Harvest delivered a swift kick to his mid-section that sent him back to the floor once again.

"I am sorry, Rogue," said Warlock softly. "I didn't know he would be this powerful."

"Then, let me take over!" came Rogue's voice from Warlock's lips. The hands reached out towards Harvest's face, but were caught before she could make contact.

"Did you really think I wouldn't see that coming," said Harvest. Then his fist smashed into Rogue's metallic covered stomach. She fell to the ground gasping for air. Then, Harvest drove his foot into Rogue/Warlock once again allowing a sinister laugh to escape his lips. "Pitiful," said Harvest as she shook his head slightly.

All of a sudden, Harvest felt a pair of feet smash into his chest. He stumbled backwards and began to fall to the ground. As he fell he managed to make out his attacker. It was Wolverine. The short, agile mutant had managed to flip and land on his feet, with his claws unleashed and ready for action.

"Didn't your momma ever teach ya not to kick someone when they're down!" said Wolverine.

"Unfortunately, no," responded Harvst. "Why don't you try to teach me?"

That was all Wolverine needed. He leapt forward and began to slash and cut with the utmost precision. However, none of his blows were able to make contact. At every move Wolverine made, it seemed that Harvest was there. It was as if he knew what Wolverine was going to do, before he did it.

"The telepath," whispered Warlock, who was struggling to get to his feet. "Harvest is using her telepathic powers. You must disable her to defeat him."

"Leave that to me," called M. The young teen wasted no time in charging towards her instructor. M smashed both of her fists into the mid-section of Ms. Frost with just enough strength to render her unconscious.

"NO!" shouted Harvest.

"Oh yeah! Let's dance, 'Bub!"teased Wolverine, who began to slice away at the golden metal which makes up Harvest's body. Harvest found himself at somewhat of a disadvantage, however he was still quite a formidable opponent. Wolverine found that Harvest still possessed the skills of a seasoned warrior.

Wolverine and Harvest continued to battle each other, still matching each other blow for blow. Then, Wolverine noticed something catch Harvest's attention briefly. The next thing, Wolverine knew, was that he had the upper hand. Harvest was backing down, and appeared to be losing the fight.

_"What gives?"_ thought Wolverine to himself. _"A few seconds ago, this guy was about as good as I am. Now, all of a sudden a putting up about as much of a fight as a bowl of cereal. Which means he must be trying to sucker me in, but for what?"_

Then, Wolverine's answer was clear. Now, only a few feet away was a gigantic Blob lunging towards Wolverine. There was no way he had enough time to dodge this hit. And if he tried to absorb it, he'd most likely end up assimilated. Without much of an option, Wolverine decided to try and dodge the attack. He leapt backwards into the air, and realized that he wasn't going to make it. In less than a second, the Blob was going to make direct contact with his skin. He could already see the tendrils begin to emerge from his skin.

Then, Wolverine saw a golden flash of light open up in front of the Blob. It was a disc, which began to spread wider and wider. Suddenly, the Blob disappeared into the golden disc of energy, and disc also vanished. Wolverine landed on the ground well away from Harvest, but ready for action. Harvest realized this and decided it would be best to make a retreat at this time.

"Don't leave yet," called a voice. Then, an optic blast nailed Harvest behind the knee. Harvest's legs went out from under him, and his massive backside smashed into the ground. Cyclops stepped into view, his visor still glowing red. Beside him were Shadowcat and Penance.

"Yes, the party is just getting started," said Wanda. Then she raised her arms into the air and shouted, "Winds of Fate! Change!" The green hex-bolts escaped her hands and surrounded a large oak tree, which fell and crashed onto Harvest's body. Next, to her stood Nightcrawler, Blink, and Spyke.

Harvest found himself unable to move at all. Suddenly, he found a pair of adamantium claws right under his chin. "All right, 'Bub," began Wolverine, "you're as good as beat. Now, tell us how to change our friends back, and you just might get outta here in something other than a dust pan."

"Fool! Do you really expect me to tell you how to free your friends! Especially when I have six other lieutenants ready to dispose of you at my command."

"I think you're on your own," said Blink.

"What are you talking about?" said Harvest. Suddenly, a loud crash filled the air. The noise had come from the mansion.

"Let's just say the Blob dropped in _on_ them," said Nightcrawler.

"You fools think that this is the end, don't you?" said Harvest.

"Well, let's see," began Spyke, "Bad guy beat, friends out of danger, world still in one piece. Offhand, I'd say you lost."

Harvest began to chuckle. "Your friends would have a different opinion," he said. Then, everyone noticed that all the bodies of their assimilated friends started to convulse violently. "When I lose, there is always a price to pay."

"What's going on?!" shouted Toad. "What's happening to them?!"

"I still control their bodies," reminded Harvest. "Therefore, I can terminate their life functions at will."

"Warlock!" shouted Paige. "Isn't there anything we can do to save them?!"

"The only way to save your friends would be to get Harvest out of range," answered Warlock.

"How far avay does he need to be?" asked Nightcrawler.

"About 2.5 light-years way," said Warlock.

"Or in another dimension," whispered Blink.

"Yes, that would suffice," agreed Warlock.

Blink turned to face Nightcrawler. He looked into her eyes, and knew instantly what she was thinking. He started to shake his head, but she simply grabbed it and kissed him before anywords could escape his lips. Blink felt the tears roll from her eyes onto Kurt's cheek. "Good-bye, Kurt." She pulled away from him and vanished in a disc of golden energy. 

"Clarice! NO!" shouted Nightcrawler. Then, he vanished in a cloud of brimstone.

Blink appeared on the tree trunk next to Wolverine. She turned and looked at Wolverine in the eyes. He nodded and leapt off of the tree trunk. Blink placed her hands against the trunk of the tree. A disc of golden energy began to spread across the trunk. The disc slowly engulfed the tree, and began to absorb Harvest as well.

"NO!" shouted Harvest. Then, Blink leapt upwards, as the golden disc started to recede. Harvest was inside and the portal was closing. Suddenly, Blink felt something grab her ankle and pull her back towards the portal.

"Clarice!" shouted Nightcrawler. The blue-furred elf slid across the grass to grasp her hand. "I von't let you go!" He held on as tightly as he could as he stared into her eyes. "I love you!"

Kurt began to pull with all of his might. Slowly, Blink began to emerge from the portal. Inch by inch, she was closer to freedom. Then, she stopped and stared into Kurt's eyes, with joy, pain, and determination in the same gaze. "I love you too, Kurt," she said.

Then, in a single move, she pulled her hand free of Kurt's grasp and allowed herself to fall into the portal. After she disappeared into the golden disc, the portal disappeared from sight.

"NO!" cried Kurt as he scrambled to the spot where the portal had been. He began to dig into the ground with his bare fingers hoping to some remnants of the portal, but knowing that it was useless. "Clarice! Clarice!"

"Then, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to find Kitty and Evan standing at his side. "Come on, man," said Evan. "She wouldn't want you to do this to yourself."

After a short while, Kurt finally stood on his feet. With Kitty and Evan's help they made it back to the Blackbird where they sat silently waiting for their friends to return as well. During that time, Kurt simply sat with his face buried in his hands.

"Ugh!" cried Jubilee. "Someone get this over-sized hippo off of me!"

"Who are you calling over-sized?" asked the Blob.

"Fred, could you please just get off of us," said Jean calmly.

Fred Dukes began to pick himself up, and noticed as small beads of golden black metal rolled off of his skin. "We're free!" Fred started towards the nearest opening, so that he could search for the rest of his friends.

"Professor? Are you all right?" asked Storm, as she helped Professor Xavier to his feet. Chamber had grabbed his other arm and was helping lift him up as well.

"I'm fine, Ororo," he replied. "However, I feel that our victory has come to us with a great sacrifice.

Ororo's expressions of relief were now replaced with concern. As they made their way to the opening, there eyes fell upon the scene before them. The grounds of the Snow Valley Xavier Institute were devastated. The only comforting scene was seeing the teens embrace one another. Scott had made his way towards Jean and was holding her tightly in his arms, as she rested her head on his shoulders. Paige had found her way to Jono, whom had embraced her with his free arm. Wanda had found her brother Pietro, and was helping him to his feet with tears of joy streaming from her eyes.

Suddenly all of the metallic debris from the Phalanx began to scramble across the grounds towards Warlock. After the mass of metal had engulfed Warlock completely, a small opening appeared. And like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, Rogue stepped out. She was still dizzy from the transformation, and was about to fall, however, Wolverine managed to grab her in time.

"My friends," said Warlock, whom had assumed his former shape, now however with his own body, "I wish to thank you for your help. I am forever indebted to you for your sacrifice."

"No Warlock," said Paige, "you don't owe us anything."

"But your friend, Blink… she sacrificed herself to…."

"She sacrificed herself so that we could all be free, Warlock," added M. "It would tarnish her memory if we were to enslave you now." 

Warlock nodded. "Very well, my friends. In that case, I must leave you now."

"Wait. Where are ye going to go?" asked Sean Cassidy.

"I must search the galaxies that Harvest had enslaved. To see if I can save any of my people as you save yours. Farewell."

"And how do you plan on getting there?" asked Scott.

"Well, now that I have consumed all of Harvest's body mass, I have access to his ship in orbit. Good-bye my friends. I hope the next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances." Then, after a few chimes on his wrist, Warlock disappeared in a flash of light.

"Emma, I'm truly sorry for you loss," said the Professor.

"Not as sorry as I am, Charles," she replied. "I promised myself I would never let this happen again. Ever."

"Emma…," began Charles, but Emma had turned and headed for the mansion. Professor Xavier sighed and turned towards Sean Cassidy, the Banshee. "Sean could you…."

"Of course, Charles. I'll keep ye posted," he replied. "However, it's just that right now, I think she needs time to herself. She's a strong woman. She'll make it through this. If not for her own sake, then for the sake of these children."

Professor Xavier nodded, as the other headmaster of the school began to round up his students and escort them back to the mansion.

The members of the X-Men and the Brotherhood stepped off the Blackbird in silence. Kurt simply teleported from the Blackbird once they had landed. He obviously wanted to be left alone. As the Brotherhood began to leave the X-mansion, Professor Xavier called to them.

"You all do realize that you are welcome to stay here. I know that neither Mystique nor Magneto have made an attempt to contact you," he said.

The members of the Brotherhood looked at each other briefly, to assure themselves that they were all on the same wavelength. Then, the members of the Brotherhood followed Lance Alvers to the door as they began to head home.

"Evan," called Wanda. "I wanted to say 'thank you.'" Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "For everything."

She started to follow the rest of the Brotherhood, and Evan watched her as she disappeared out of the front door. "Hey, Daniels," came a voice from behind. Evan turned around to find himself face-to-face with Pietro. "Stay away from my, sister!" he said as she drove his finger into Evan's chest. Then, he disappeared in a blur.

Nightcrawler sat on the roof of the mansion, and stared out into the horizon at the night sky. He sighed as he continued to stare into the heavens. "Clarice," he began, "vhen I told you that I loved you, I meant every vord, just as I do now. And because of that feeling, I know that you're not dead. I can feel it in my heart. And I promise you that some day, I vill find you again."

Suddenly, a golden flash of light appeared just in front of Kurt. He shielded his eyes and felt something knock him onto his back. When he opened his eyes and looked up. The sight before him made him feel as if his heart had stopped beating, and the next words that he heard made his heart melt with joy.

"Did you miss me?"

THE END


End file.
